Wireless Safety - Don't Let Cell Phones Kill You!

Wireless
safety has definitely started to get more attention as
the number
and types of mobile wireless gadgets have increased so dramatically in
recent years.
While
technology is amazing, and can help us with productivity, keeping in
touch with friends and family, and is just plain fun to use,
it can also
lead to questions about safety. After all, no one wants to
sacrifice the health and safety of our families, ourselves, or even
those around us that we
don't know, for the sake of convenience,
fun, and getting out that late night email to our bosses, right?

What Does Wireless Safety Mean?

Wireless safety can actually mean different
things to different people. For many of us, the first thing
that
comes to mind when thinking about safety in the wireless space is
related to health safety. In other words, are cell phones and
wireless broadband products physically safe? Are the radio
waves
that are constantly swirling around our bodies damaging? Can
it
impact fertility, higher brain function, or contribute to cancer?
A
conversation
around this topic usually brings back memories of legacy research that
"proved" that cell phones can cause cancer. Of course, those
studies have long since been refuted; however, it's hard to forget
about the potential for harm.

It's actually pretty amazing
that
despite all of the controversy in the early days of cell phones, we all
still gobbled them up to the point where virtually everyone we know,
and approaching everyone on the planet(!) has
a cell phone, and sometimes even more than one. Not to
mention
wirelessly enabled tablets, laptops, chromebooks, and the
like.
That said,
widespread adoption does not mean that all of our concerns mysteriously
disappear.

It's About More Than Physical Health!

I think that the topic of physical health impacts
was the original (and long-lasting!) concern for the average person,
however, as time went on, safety concerns began to evolve to new risks
related to mobile devices. First came concerns around talking
on
the phone while driving. People said that holding a phone was
distracting, and left the driver with only one hand on the wheel, and
potentially not paying full attention to the road ahead. Even
when hands free headsets were introduced the concern of
being distracted was still there. Then as text
messaging and
mobile email became popular, there came new concerns regarding being
distracted while driving. In my opinion, these new issues are
even more real as people need to take their eyes completely off the
road to send a text, or respond to a Facebook message. In
addition, there
have
been real examples of car crashes, and even train collisions that
were proven to be due to people text messaging.

Conclusion

So what does
all of this mean? Are cell phones and mobile broadband
devices a
hazard to our health? While the physical health impacts still
continue to be debated, I think it's fair to conclude that being
distracted while driving is a real
and proven risk to ourselves and those around us. Are we
willing
to turn off our gadgets while in the car, or put them in the trunk to
avoid temptation in the spirit of wireless safety? Can we use
voice recognition technology to
decrease the risks? No doubt everyone has a different opinion
on
these topics. I think the first important step is to be aware
and
acknowledge that our beloved wireless toys can also negatively impact
our lives and our health.

These and more topics are
all related to wireless safety. To help organize these
them,
I've categorized wireless related
safety
into the following categories. You can click the
topics
below to explore them in more detail!